PM wants city to speed up flood barriers
Play
Concern over unfinished work on dykes, canals
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has asked Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to accelerate its work to repair flood protection systems including dykes along the Chao Phraya River, according to Cabinet secretary-general Ampon Kittiampon.
He spoke to the media after a meeting of the Water and Flood Management Committee, chaired by the PM yesterday.
Yingluck has asked related flood prevention agencies to report on the plan to install and repair infrastructure to prevent flooding in coming months.
So far, flood related agencies had done about 70 to 80 per cent of work needed to maintain and set up infrastructure to prevent flooding, Ampon said.
He said the PM asked the BMA and related agencies to speed up its plan to repair dykes along the Chao Phraya.
There are about 17 spots along the river from Nonthaburi where embankments have been installed to prevent flooding or at least reduce flood damage.
The PM also asked relevant agencies to accelerate construction of an embankment along King’s Dyke on the western, eastern and northern boundaries of Bangkok to prevent floodwater flowing into the city.
The King’s Dyke in the western-eastern area will be set up along Phraya Ban Lue Canal, while the dyke in north will be installed along Rangsit Canal and Rapeepat Canal.
Ampon said the government would elevate the Asia Highway Network surrounding industrial areas in Ayutthaya to 1.5 metres to protect them from being flooded.
“The government will no longer use sandbag or ‘big-bags’ to prevent flooding. We hope all infrastructure that we have had prepared will work very well when floods come,” he said.
Global-positioning-system (GPS) devices would be used to monitor progress on construction now underway to prevent floods, including the development of “monkey cheek” water storage areas and dredging of wetlands.
“To date, we’ve faced problems such as we could not ask people to move their home to other places that are located in the floodway,” he |said.
The PM also asked the operators of two main dams in the north – Bhumipol and Sirikit Dams – to report the water level in main dams every day.
The level of water in dams should not be lower than 50 per cent of what they hold when full.
“We expect that all construction work to prevent flooding will be finished by the end of August,” Ampon said.
Meanwhile, committee head and Minister of Science and Technology Plodprasop Suraswadi said the premier called a special meeting on the water management plan.
He said the government had asked the BMA to check that encroachment along main canals does not become an obstacle to floodwater being drained into the sea.
He said they estimated the amount of floodwater would be less than last year.
